The Empty Quarter

xx THE EMPTY QUARTEK

of funds. And it so happened that at that time my friend,
Mrs. Rosita Forbes, the heroine of an arduous journey through
the Libyan Desert to the then almost unknown,1 though now
notorious, oasis of Kufra, had bethought herself of the Empty
Quarter in her search for new worlds to conquer. We joined
forces and concerted our plans together, while it was she that
secured the necessary financial backing for the joint enter-
prise.

By the autumn everything was ready except Arabia itself,
which was rocking to the music of a revolution. Without
warning the pent-up fires of Wahhabi Najd had burst forth
in a mighty eruption along the borders of the Sharifian
kingdom. The massacre at Taif had shocked^the world in
September, and a month later Mecca, deserted by its king,
surrendered peacefully to the fanatics. It seemed but a
matter of days to the fall of Jidda and Madina, while, with
Ibn Sa'ud dominating all that mattered of Arabia, the omens
seemed propitious enough for the prosecution of our plans.
Only a measure of secrecy was necessary in the circum-
stances lest those plans should be divined and frustrated by
sympathetic and well-meaning British officials.

Bahrain was the agreed rendezvous, and I set out alone
about the middle of October. On the train carrying me
across [France I met Dr. Hogarth, who may have fathomed the
purpose of my journey but kept his counsel. I saw him but
little thereafter, for he was soon struck down by the malady
which carried him in the end to his grave. And I never know
vhat he thought of my futile endeavour, if he ever know ita
objective. Meanwhile at Marseilles, having already in Lon-
don secured a ticket and berth to Bandar * Abbas, 1 had
boarded a vessel of name more than auspicioua«~S.S.
Begistan, ' the land of sand 1 '

At Suez, on hearing the latest news from Arabia, I changed
my plans, and a few days later I landed at Jidda as the guest
of His Majesty King 'Ali, who had succeeded to the remnants
of his father's throne on the latter's abdication and hasty
departure. For a moment it seemed that peace might be
restored on reasonable terms. But the die was cast other*
1 It had previously beea visited only by Gerhard Bohlfs in 1870*